Work Text:
Elain was rarely sick. The last cold she had was years ago when she was still in High School and since then, she was extremely lucky to not get sick. Until she woke up this morning and felt like she got hit by a bus. Her head was pounding and her nose was stuffy and her coughs made her wish she was dead. Well, not dead but a little less conscious because everytime she coughed, or sneezed, it felt like her head would just burst . Because she never got sick, she didn't have any medicine at home, which meant she would have to get up and go to a pharmacy. Now. But she couldn't get herself to leave her bed, not even to make herself tea.
Elain groaned into her pillow when her phone rang and she was tempted to just leave it ringing but she picked it up and looked at the display. Lucien Vanserra . Her Co-Worker.
Sighing, she picked up. "Hello?" she sniffed.
"You called in sick?" he asked immediately without greeting her.
"Yes." she replied, already exhausted from holding that damn phone.
"Why?"
"Because I'm sick." she answered.
"You're never sick." he countered as if it never crossed his mind that Elain could get a cold. She could also make out a hint of concern but she probably imagined that in her state.
"Trust me, I wish I would have lied but I really am. Thanks for your concern but I have to hang up now." Elain said, her voice cracking. "Goodbye." She hung up and threw her phone in the drawer of her night stand. When she settled back into her pillows, guilt overcame her. Of course she didn't blame Lucien for being curious, it was a well known fact how rarely Elain called in sick for work and she never intended to talk so unpleasant to him.
Yes, Elain owed him an apology but only after her nap. Everything had to wait until she woke up again.
Which was about three hours later when a loud knock pulled her out of a nightmare where her garden was on fire. Groaning she slipped on a dressing gown, heart still pounding from her dream and dizzy from her cold she walked to the front door. A knock sounded again. "I'm coming!" she snapped and opened the door with more vigor than she had anticipated, just to look into Lucien's russet eye. He held a brown paper bag, filled with whatever, Elain didn't know. She could just see something pink peeking out. He still wore his office attire, surprisingly. She knew that Lucien hated his attire and that the first thing he did after coming home was slipping Into something more comfortable.
"I brought you some medicine." Lucien interrupted her thoughts and plastered a smile on his face. "I thought you might be in need of this. I also got chicken soup. It doesn't compete with your own cooking of course, but it's alright."
Elain nodded, speechless. She hadn't expected Lucien to come over, she hadn't expected him to care. Yes, they talked a lot during their working hours but Elain always assumed he asked her all kinds of questions to keep up the small talk and because he was genuinely interested. She shook her head and stepped aside, "Come in."
Lucien nodded in thanks and as he stepped in her apartment, he quickly looked around and then went to the open kitchen to their right and placed the bag on the kitchen counter.
"Sit." he said, pointing to her couch. Elain did, without saying a word, smoothing her hair in the meantime. She must look terrible, she just woke up after all. Elain probably looked like she just fought a racoon.
A ripping sound came from the kitchen and then Lucien walked towards her. He put the medicine on the coffee table in front of them. It turned out the pink Elain had spotted was a very fluffy blanket that he now wrapped around her. "Is that okay?"
"Yes." Elain answered, smiling. She watched him as he went back to the kitchen and brewed her tea. As Lucien waited for the water to boil, he loosened his tie and rolled his sleeves up to his elbow, showing his muscular forearm. His long, red hair was up in a ponytail and as he maneuvered himself through Elain’s kitchen, she looked at him in a wholly different light. At work he was just Lucien, she hadn't paid him a second glance while they just did their work or had smalltalk but now he was….attractive. Elain was glad for the sneeze that was coming, able to hide her blushing face but Lucien didn't miss a beat.
"What?" he asked as he looked back.
Elain quickly shook her head, her hair, still not brushed and wild as ever, flew in her face. With a sigh she brushed the few lingering strands away and said "Nothing. I was just…thinking." she wouldn't say she was a bad liar, not at all, but she really disliked doing it so she'd rather tell the truth but keep it vague. Lucien apparently wasn't one to accept vague answers.
"What about?"
So Elain told him a half-truth, much more personal but at least she can ignore this new, weird feeling when she looked at Lucien. "I am thinking a lot about my sister lately." Not a lie at all, she was thinking a lot about Feyre lately, it just wasn't the truth he implied.
"Nesta?" he asked. Elain looked at him, surprised. Lucien had remembered her sister's name.
She shook her head, "No, Feyre." she explained. "I am in contact with Nesta," rarely "but not with Feyre. I mean we aren't fully no contact, we text each other in holidays on birthdays but just generic stuff that everyone texts each other on these days." Elain shrugged, biting on her thumbnail. "I don't know, I miss her."
Lucien picked up a steaming bowl and cup and bought it over to Elain, putting it down on the table in front of her. She thanked him as she took the cup of tea and took her first tea.
"You should call her." Lucien said, perching in the arm roll of the couch.
Elain craned her neck to look up at him, "You really think so?"
Lucien extended his hand, as if he would take a curl of Elain’s untamed mane and wrap it around his finger but changing his mind in the last second and dropping his hand. "Yes, I think so. You miss her, so why not?"
"I'm scared she doesn't want any contact."
Lucien sighed, smiling at her. Not a condescending smile, but an understanding one. "Then you tried."
They looked into each other's eyes for a moment until Elain looked away and took the bowl of soup. "You're right." she said.
That was it about that topic. They kept having some smalltalk about work before Lucien had to get back to work, but he repeatedly told her that she can call him if she needs anything. Elain almost had to drag him out of the apartment so he wouldn't be late.
The rest of the day, Elain watched movies and did some work that she could do from home, her eyes always wandering to her phone until she grabs it around seven in the evening, and dialed Feyres number. Her heart squeezed painfully when she heard her sister's raw voice at the end of the line. "Hey Elain."
—-------------------
It was half past five and Lucien should already be home. Maybe he was grocery shopping or visiting a friend or working later, but Elain felt nervous. She sat on the steps at his apartment complex, a bouquet of flowers balancing on her legs. Maybe she shouldn't have taken the bouquet with her but she made it herself and felt, well , right.
She jumped when his car turned into the parking lot and watched him as he gathered his things and left his car. He immediately smiled when he spotted Elain. Lucien had that kind of smile that lit up a whole room. Lucien felt like a ray of sunshine after a storm.
"Elain," he said. "What are you doing here? Not that I'm disappointed, I'm just surprised."
Elain offered him the bouquet of flowers, "This is for you."
He smiled as he accepted them, but his expression turned confused, "What's the occasion?"
"It's a thank you," Elain explained. "For encouraging me to call my sister." she played with the hem of her floral blouse, "It turns out she's pregnant! I'm going to be an aunt."
"Wow!" Lucien said. "That's…congratulations!"
"Thank you." she said. "She just started announcing her pregnancy."
Lucien looked at her, understanding filling his features, the relief that was clearly written on Elain’s face. She wouldn't know how she would have reacted if Feyre wouldn't have told her at all, it just turned out Elain was quicker with contacting her. Although she felt bad for even questioning her about this. Before they all followed their own paths and went to college, Feyre was the glue that kept the family together. Maybe it was time to give something back.